Nightmare: The Dark Prince
by NightmareDC13
Summary: A vampire vigilante from Gotham has been on the job for 5 years. He has taken down some of Gotham's most notorious criminals alongside the Batman Family, but what will he do when he's faced with an enhanced opponent? This story features two OCs as they battle alongside the Batman Family against an original villain and other Batman villains.


Nightmare: The Dark Prince

Prologue

Our story takes place in a corrupt, crime ridden city called Gotham. Located in northern New Jersey, the crimes that take place here are racketeering, drug trafficking, human trafficking, prostitution, corruption, and simple stuff like murder and theft. Organized crime has a grip on the city's throat. Not all crimes committed here are bad per say. The city has a history with vigilantes, most notably Batman and Robin. According to government files, Batman is Bruce Wayne. As for the boy wonder, it's a complicated one. The first Robin was a circus performer until his family was killed in a hit by mob boss Tony Zucco (Deceased). Grayson now operates in Blüdhaven under the alias Nightwing. The second Robin was a street orphan named Jason Todd. Jason Todd was killed in a warehouse explosion orchestrated by the Joker. The third Robin was a high class boy by the name of Timothy Drake, he now operates under the alias of Red Robin. The 4th Robin was the daughter of villain Arthur Brown, AKA Cluemaster. She now operates under the alias of Spoiler. The current Robin is Bruce Wayne's son Damien Wayne. The current Batgirl is Barbara Gordon. Those are the more tame vigilantes, they have never been known to kill. There are two vigilantes that are known to kill. These two are the Red Hood and Nightmare. Nobody knows who these two are. Red Hood has been caught without his helmet on, however, he wears a domino mask under that. Blood found at crime scenes where he has been injured has come back from DNA analysis saying the blood is from. But as stated earlier, Jason Todd has been dead for some time now. Nightmare is the subject of this story. He has long black hair, blue eyes, a medium build stands at about 5'11. For some time, nobody was able to deduce his true identity. He has now been confirmed as Wayne Enterprises employee and musician Taylor Hayes.

Chapter 1: Taylor's origin

Taylor Hayes was just your average kid seeking adventure. He has long black hair and blue eyes, he is a pretty strong build but is still a bit smaller than Batman at 5'10. But one night he ventured into a colonial vampire crypt and awoke a vampire by the name of Adrian Dumont. This in turn gave him three scars across the right eye and gave him vampiric abilities, such as superhuman strength, reflexes, agility, healing and the ability to transform into a swarm of bats. In his first year, he detained over 150 perps, including the Penguin and Victor Zsasz. This pattern continued until his 3rd year. His father was a mercenary named Jedediah Hayes, now operating under the name of Hornet. Jedediah failed a botched a hit on mob boss Rupert Thorne. When Thorne figured out that Jedediah was the assassin, he hired Floyd Lawton (Alias Deadshot) to kill his wife, Eliza.

Soon after Eliza Hayes was murdered, Taylor tracked down a rapist named Aaron Taylor, who had drugged and kidnapped a 13 year old girl. He hid in Aaron's apartment until he came back with the girl and layed her down passed out on the couch. Taylor attacked Aaron beating him within an inch of his life. He went to go retrieve the girl but Aaron lunged at him. In one swift motion, Taylor grabbed a kitchen knife off the table and cut open Aaron's throat. Recalling a Ruger Blackhawk he had found in Aaron's room, Taylor went back to grab it and came back into the living room. Taylor smiled at the fear in his eyes. With no remorse or second thought, he put a bullet right between his eyes. This would be his first kill of many over the next 3 years.

A few months later he tracked down Floyd Lawton, the assassin hired to kill his mother. He almost killed Lawton with his bare hands until he mentioned that he had a daughter. It was then that he told Taylor that he was hired by Rupert Thorne, who was then running for mayor. Taking nothing with him but dual Ruger SR1911s and a machete Taylor engaged in a bloody shootout with Thorne's private security and after dispatching the security, made his way to Thorne's office. Taylor kicked open the door but was met by his big British bodyguard. Taylor was tossed left and right until Thorne entered the room laughing.

"Kid, did you really think that I wouldn't hear the gunshots? You came here looking for a bloodbath with me at the center." Thorne said

"Alright I've said my words. Kill him and dump the body in slaughter swamp." Thorne barked orders at his bodyguard. The bodyguard shot Taylor in the back of the head killing him temporarily. When he regenerated he stabbed the bodyguard through with the machete and unloaded two full clips into Rupert Thorne's skull and torso, exposing bits of muscle and bone. He approached Thorne's corpse and nodded his head in satisfaction at what he had done, holstering his guns and walking off. Taylor's thirst for revenge had finally been quenched.

Chapter two: Autumn's origin

Autumn Black was a strange girl, she had appeared in Norway at age 11 with her memory fragmented. She had only remembered her birth parents faces and what her place of birthplace looked like, which was a whole other world. She spoke Norse and a little bit of broken English. The only thing she could remember about herself was that her name was Lômiphêl, which isn't a name from any known language on Earth. As stated earlier, she most definitely wasn't of this world. She was quite small for her age, she had piercing green eyes, brown hair, and pointed elf like ears with pale skin and freckles. She was taken in by a woodsman named Jörgen Black in a small Norwegian village and apprenticed in the ways of hunting and stealth.

After oil was discovered near the village, people tried to get rich. The citizens were able to keep out the people trying to buy the village from them. That is all except one. After a while a private military group called Darkwater arrived to force the citizens out of the village. At first only three people were sent to the village with a warning a commander and two enforcers.

"You have one week for all of you to leave so that we can begin setting up the rig and if you don't, well…" the commander paused and nodded at an enforcer. The enforcer grabbed an unarmed woman and executed her in front of the whole village. The trio got into the truck they arrived in and drove off.

"We have to do something! We can't just let these fuckers take everything that we stand for!" said one of the citizens. Jörgen walked over and placed his hand on the farmer's shoulder.

"Boy, are you willing to die for what you stand for?" he asked. "Well, yes. But I don't have anything to defend myself with." he responded.

"Luckily you won't have to for our first act of rebellion. Follow their truck, and I'll get in the back." said Jörgen. They follow the tire tracks until they catch up to the truck. Jörgen fires two shots into the window, killing the two enforcers. The car veers off road and runs into a tree. The commander crawls out of the truck. Jörgen hits the commander in the leg with a baseball bat.

"Tell your boss to fuck off." he says.

A week passed and Darkwater operatives rolled into town heavily armed on humvees. They started taking civilians hostage. The commander that Jörgen had beat on got out of the middle humvee "We could have given you compensation if you would've just turned and walked away! But instead you had to kill two of our men and break my ribs. Now, you'll just have to die." he says shooting Jörgen in the eye. The operatives open fire on the citizens. Jörgen grabs Autumn and puts her in his truck as they drive off into the forest.

Autumn arrived at a hunting lodge that Jörgen resides in during the Spring. Jorgen wrapped his head with a bandage. He hands Autumn a crossbow, a combat knife and an M1911. "Here's a two way radio. I need to do some things here, including figuring out how to go back to town and free everybody. Along with that, I need to treat my eye or lack thereof. I'll guide you, but I need you to take the fight to those operatives. Can you do that for me?" he says to Autumn.

"Jeg er redd. Jeg har sett hva de gjorde med deg. Den tøffeste sønnen av en tispe vet jeg, og det skremmer meg til å tenke hva de ville gjøre med meg." she says.

"I may be tough, but being tough doesn't prevent injury. Even Thor will die from the poison of Jörmungandr, but not before killing the serpent. That is what I plan on doing to these Darkwater bastards. Only by dying a warrior's death will I be able to accept my ascendance into Valhalla." Jörgen responds.

Autumn found a group of operatives at a gas station and hops in the back of their truck. Soon, they stop at a warehouse and get out. With inhuman speed, she dispatches the soldiers outside the truck with a knife, stabbing one in the heart and then pulling it out and stabbing the other in the back of the neck. She takes out all the guards in the warehouse with a crossbow. She reaches an office after killing multiple guards with the crossbow on the second level and reaches for the doorknob but is pulled away and thrown through the railing by a man with mid length hair and a beard in a dress shirt, tie and fur trench coat. She could see her only memory of her parents sending her through a portal one last time before she crashed through a shelf. She coughs, blood comes out of her mouth. She passes out from the pain, expecting to die. She momentarily woke up to see the man that threw her standing over her with two guards. "Lock her up." he says.

Next time she wakes up, a guard is standing over her. He puts his hand on her leg. "We got all this time, so what to do first?" he says. A gunshot rings out and the guard slumps over with a bullet hole in his head Jörgen pulls up Autumn and hands her a combat knife and an AR-15. "The whole town is here, join the fight with us." he says. Autumn goes back to the office and opens the door. The man that threw her off the balcony was sitting at a desk. "Who are you?" she asks. "What do you mean who am I? I am Joseph Bonneville! I am one of the richest men in America! I am a veteran!" he says.

"Explains why I don't know who you are. Why are you doing this?"

"Are you stupid? Oil! Oil will get you rich maybe I should hire you as a member of my private security. I watched you kill two of my men with a knife. I will pay you quite handsomely."

Autumn roundhouse kicks Bonneville and strikes him in the face multiple times, making him bloody in the process. Bonneville swings at her, but is a little too slow. Autumn kicks him into his desk and slashes his chest and face with a knife. Bonneville lunges towards her, but is stabbed in the stomach. She stabs him three more times until he is on his knees. She pulls his hair back and with one quick motion slashes his throat. She back kicks Bonneville into a wall head first, where he breaks his neck and dies instantly. Meanwhile Jörgen is engaged in a gunfight with the commander that took his eye. He jumps out of the way of incoming gunfire and hides behind a concrete barrier to wait for the commander to approach him.

"I haven't the slightest idea how you survived a bullet to your skull. But no matter, I'll put you out of your half sighted misery." he says as he approaches the barrier. Jörgen pops up and disarms the commander, who looks helplessly as his gun spins away from him. He slowly looks at the big, brutish Jörgen.

"Looks like you've bit off more than you can chew." he says as he buries a handcrafted viking hatchet into his shoulder and pulls it out by kicking him away. The commander gets back up with a pistol drawn but Jörgen points his arms up discharging a shot and shoves the commander against a post. The commander punched Jörgen in the face. Jörgen brushes it off and buries the hatchet in the commander's chest and then slits his throat with one heavy strike. Jörgen had finally pulled out the thorn in his side.

Jörgen, Autumn, and the small army that Jörgen gathered went back into town to liberate the hostages that Darkwater had taken. As soon as they got into town, they opened fire on Darkwater. Jörgen had a group firing from the front of town with assault rifles while another group fired from the trees with hunting rifles. Autumn stealthily entered houses with hostages and freed them. Only using a hunting knife, she violently hacked her way through many Darkwater operatives. Jörgen took the last remaining operative, a captain, and hung him from a tree in front of the whole town as a warning for anybody else who dared do harm to the town.

Two years later, at age 19, Autumn left Norway after receiving a scholarship to Gotham University. By second semester, she had made a few friends. But none as good as Taylor Hayes. They didn't have any of the same classes together, as they both had different paths at the university. Little did they know that their paths would soon converge into one.

Chapter 3: Overkill's origin

John Reeves was born in Chicago Illinois. He was rebellious in nature, but he was obedient towards his parents. He has orange hair that was cut into an undercut and was a pretty medium build, standing at 5'11. At age 18, he joined the US military. His superiors noticed his skill and soon recruited him for a Black Ops team tasked in taking down high value targets. Over the next few years, him and his team detained high value targets like Bruno Mannheim, Anatoli "KGBeast" Knyazev, and Konstantin Kovar. However, there would be one mission that would change John's life forever. They were assigned to take down an organization called HIVE. HIVE was led by a power obsessed leader named Sebastian Blood but went by the name Brother Blood. The compound was discovered by Spyral and was awaiting infiltration. The objective: Kill or detain Brother Blood.

As soon as they reached the compound, they opened fire on every member of HIVE they could find. They soon separated into squadrons, John being left with lower ranking soldiers.

"Look I joined the service to fight, not babysit. I have two orders for you. Stick by me and shoot to kill. Got it?" he told his men.

"Sir yes sir!" they responded.

"Good! We have a layout of the compound, but we don't know where Blood is hiding. We're going to take the prison wing. No chances of Blood being there, but there are possible hostages."

The head towards the prison wing, violently dispatching every HIVE member they can find. They approach the final door, the blast door at the end of the hallway closes, and an assailant stands in front of the door. He is wearing a mask, half orange, half black. On the black side of the mask, there is no eye hole. There are also ribbons on the back of the mask of the same color. His armor is mainly black but a few pieces are orange. He also wears black cargo pants and black and orange combat boots.

"They say that you are the best of the best. I can't possibly see why. I was able to track you because of the bodies you laid down everywhere. I'm going to give you a chance to leave, however you must drop your weapons. There is no shame in surrender, besides I'm already disappointed."

John had seen him in a file before. He was seen as a top priority target for the assassination of dozens of politicians. He was Slade Wilson, a former special forces operative who was involved in an experiment to create a super soldier. The experiment was a success, giving Slade enhanced cognitive ability, accelerated healing, enhanced senses, enhanced speed, and enhanced reflexes. Once out of the service, and after losing his eye, Slade became the world's deadliest assassin, operating under a name striking fear into the hearts of all that heard it… Deathstroke.

Deathstroke lunged forward cutting John's men down, each with one simple stroke of a katana blade. John tried to run seeing as his men were just killed. Deathstroke pursued John to a cliff where he cut both of John's legs off just above the knee. Deathstroke watched in satisfaction as John fell to his demise. John briefly awoke to see his commanding officer approach him in the beach that he fell onto.

"We gotta help him!" said one of the Privates.

"We have to leave him. There's nothing we can do for him. We'll have someone pick up his corpse and deliver him. Back home. But right now we need to leave." the officer said. John awoke briefly once again to see Deathstroke standing over him.

"I'll fix you, turn you into less of a disappointment." he said.

Next time John awoke, he was in a run down medical facility hooked up to various medical equipment with an orange fluid being pumped into him. He passed out once again awakening some time later to see machines working on him attaching new, shiny chromatic legs to his stumps. These new, cybernetic legs were mainly black, but had elements of red to them too. Deathstroke stood over him, mask off.

"This is only the beginning. But I'll make you wish this was it."

The only thing John could remember was being tortured every day. From being beaten, drowned and water boarded. They would even force him to watch acts of brutal, senseless violence on a screen. The beatings consisted of John being thrown into a room with masked mercenaries and being beaten until he couldn't stand up. As he was being transported to one of these beatings, however, Deathstroke handed John a glass shiv. The beating continued as usual until something inside him snapped. He stood up and quickly broke the first mercenary's neck, then slit the second one's throat, and finally stabbed the third one a total of 12 times. He went back over to the one who was bleeding out from the throat and delivered a knee to the side of the skull with him his metallic knee, shattering it into pieces and shooting the eyeball out of its socket. John found a knife and pursues Deathstroke.

"Slade!" he screams as he violently kills any guard he comes across with the combat knife. He finally reaches an office, where he kicks open the door to see Slade sitting at his desk aiming a gun at him.

"Sit down and let's talk about this." Slade said

"What the hell is there to talk about? You tortured me for months!"

"Actually it's only been three weeks."

"Regardless, there is nothing to talk about! I'll just kill you and leave!"

"How about a chance to succeed where your peers failed?"

"what do you mean?"

"I mean a chance to kill Sebastian Blood. He is here, in New York. But today is the only day you can carry out the deed."

"Enough of this bullshit! Why did you torture me Slade? Why?!"

"I wouldn't call that torture. I was conditioning you, turning you into a killer."

"The Hell you did!"

John leaped in the air attempting to plunge the knife into Slade's chest. Slade Shoots John in the chest, sending him plummeting to the ground. Slade picks up the knife and presses it against John's throat .

"I made you what you are meant to be! You were trained to be a killer! You were meant to be a killer! Now be a killer!" Slade screamed in rage.

He released John from his grip.

"What's in it for me? Why would you want to kill your employer?" John said

"I want to kill him because he used me to get to my son Joseph for his… abilities. I've been doing this for 20 years and I believe it is my turn to finally get it right when it comes to training someone. Last time I trained somebody they did well for a few months. They pulled off heist after heist, but they ended up getting sloppy. They got into a fight with Batman at Ace Chemicals, miscalculated a swing, tripped and fell into a vat of toxic waste. In short, it… changed him. People now know this trainee as the Joker. Now as far as what's in it for you. I am willing to offer 2 million dollars for the death of Sebastian Blood."

"Where do I sign up?" asked John

"The Way I see it, you already have." replied Slade.

Slade guided John to an armory. There, he strapped on a black and red kevlar vest, put on a black half mask, black trench coat and equipped himself with a custom high powered handgun and a serrated combat knife. After he was done, spade took him out to a limo and drove him to a hotel. After receiving the information on the hit, John set off. He found himself in a luxury suite belonging to Sebastian Blood. As soon as he walked in, he saw Sebastian Blood looking out of a window. John pressed the knife against Blood's back

"Do you remember the 18th of June? Two months ago?" he said

"Yes, clearly. The US military raided my compound, I killed all of them. But I believe three escaped and one didn't actually die but lost something… your legs."

"Damn right I lost my legs. I lost my humanity, Slade Wilson tortured me! For weeks!"

"And yet you still hesit-"

Sebastian is cut short as John throws him against a glass cabinet. John picks up Sebastian by the shirt collar and punches him in the face, bringing him to his knees. Then John kicks him in the gut, sending him flying back over to the window with the assistance of his mechanical legs.

"Who were the survivors?!" yelled John in rage.

"They abandoned you? Yet you still want to find them?"

"If they abandoned me, why do you think I want to find them?"

"I see, so now you'll carry out my final request without me asking."

John stepped back and unloaded the whole clip into Sebastian's chest and then kicked him out of the window and onto a car down below. After that, John gets a phone call from Slade. He answers

"Don't you think that was a bit overkill?" Slade asks.

"Overkill? I AM overkill!" responds John.

"Good one, you might want to consider that one when you're coming up with an alias. Come back to the car. I have your payment." Slade hands John a briefcase as he enters the car with 2 million dollars in it.

"Do you know what you're going to do with that money?" asks Slade.

"I know exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to make people fear me, I'm going to recruit others to my cause and I'm going to do what I was meant to do as a soldier, kill."

Washington D.C., one week Later

John is sitting in an apartment cleaning his gun while sitting on a couch. A man walks it. Sgt. Rick Flag, US army, head of operations such as Task Force X. John points the gun at Flag.

"John? What the hell are you doing in my apartment? I thought you were dead. Now put the gun down, let's talk."

"Do I look like I want to talk? Or do I look like I want to kill you?"

"Come on John! I left you because Deathstroke hunted down and killed everybody! We had to leave or we were next! You were barely hanging on anyway!"

"Yeah, Sometimes I wished I'd just gone faster."

John pulls out a kukri and swings it at Flag, who dodges it. Flag strikes John in the face and tackles him to the ground. While on top of him, Flag punches John in the face three more times. John forces him off and kicks him into the couch, toppling it over and sending him over the top. Flag pulls out a pistol and fires five shots at John, who dives behind the counter. John then pulls out his own pistol and returns fire but misses as Flag ducks behind the couch. As John reloads, Flag bolts out the door. John quickly reloads his gun and pursues Flag out into a parking garage. John enters the parking garage but is unable to locate Flag. Flag suddenly attacks John with a knife. John moves out of the way, disarms Flag of the knife and elbows flag in the face, sending him to the ground. John picks up Flag and throws him into the windshield of a car.

"Just give up Rick, you died when you left me for dead!"

Flag quickly sits back up and shoots John in the chest. John collapses with one final gasp. Flag attempts to call the police, but John sits up and shoots him 3 times in the chest.

"Every soldier that I know conceal carries. Do you think I'm dumb enough to come to a fight with a veteran unprepared?"

John unzips his jacket to reveal a kevlar vest. Flag collapses to his knees, where John pulls out a knife and stabs him through the throat. He stood there for a moment just to watch Flag bleed out. After that, he sets out to recruit people to his organization over the course of two years which he would call Blackout.

Chapter 3: The Robin and the Crane

It's second semester at Gotham University. All the students are out of it sitting in a lecture given by their professor. The usual troublemakers were sitting together. They were Dick Grayson who was the smart ass of the group, Taylor Hayes who was the punk of the group and usually drew on his desk, and then Barbara Gordon who was the smart one and usually stayed out of trouble. Taylor snickered as he loaded a spitball into a straw and aimed it at a girl with brown and green hair wearing a beanie sitting a row down from him. Dick quickly knocked it out of his hand.

"Hey… asshole!" Taylor whispered.

"There are better ways dude, just ask Babs over here." Dick replied.

"Wait, what did he try to do?" Barbara asked Dick.

"Well Romeo over here tried to launch a spitball at the girl in front of him."

"Oh Man! There are better ways to get laid then spit, that comes during the fact."

Dick laughs out loud. The whole class looks at him.

"Mr. Grayson! Do you have something to say that would benefit the class?" the professor asks.

Dick attempts to speak, but the lights turn off. Something wasn't right. A man wearing a brown hooded trench coat, with a flannel shirt underneath, raggedy pants and boots, and a mask made out of burlap walked in carrying a lantern. He was a patient at Arkham Asylum and a former psychology professor at the university. His name was Jonathan Crane, but most people knew him as the Scarecrow. He sprayed the professor with a gaseous substance coming from his wrist. The professor looked around in terror and then collapsed screaming

"Spiders! There's spiders everywhere!" the professor screamed.

"What you are seeing is arachnophobia, in its most heightened state. As for the rest of you, it appears your professor is… unwell. So I'm going to take over. It's time for a lesson in fear."

Scarecrow sprays four students in the front row. They all begin screaming in terror before turning on each other with pencils. The lights turn on as Scarecrow vanishes.

"What are we going to do? Bruce is in a meeting, Damien is in school, and I'm estimating police response time to be too long. It is the GCPD after all." said Taylor.

"You don't need a suit to be a hero." said Dick.

"Dick's right, you don't need a suit to be a hero. The suit is just a symbol, a symbol of justice." said Barbara.

"Or death in my case." replied Taylor.

"Those students need to be stopped and contained. We don't have the antidote because well, it's in the Batcave. We need to split up, I'll find Crane." Said Dick.

They all split up Taylor heads down the hall to see the girl he was going to spitball about to be attacked by a crazed student. Taylor jumps off the wall and kicks the student in the face. The student arms himself with a mop.

"Stay back! I don't want anybody to get hurt!" the student cries. The student wildly swings the mop, missing Taylor with every swing. The girl that Taylor saved jumps off of his shoulders and drop kicks the student before shoving him into a janitorial closet and barricading the door with a desk.

"And for once, the clueless damsel in distress saved the wannabe hero." she says.

"You gotta leave, it's not safe." Taylor replies.

"Why do I have to leave? I don't see you going towards an exit either."

"People need saving."

"Vigilante justice… this IS Gotham, so I'm not surprised."

Meanwhile Dick entered a classroom searching for Scarecrow

"What is your greatest fear? Is it spiders? Snakes? Heights? Or maybe it's more complex than that." Scarecrow says while still hidden.

"Show yourself Crane!" Dick shouts.

The lights begin flickering as Scarecrow comes out of nowhere and attacks Dick with a scythe. He manages to get out of the way for the most part but is slashed across the chest just once. The lights suddenly go out even Scarecrow is confused.

"Now you know how it feels to be afraid Crane." a modulated voice says. The lights come on as scarecrow is knocked off the desk by a familiar face. He is wearing a green domino mask with red and green armor and a yellow cape with yellow "R" symbol on the left side of his chest. This was Robin, the sidekick of Batman. Scarecrow runs out of the building and is chased by Robin. As Scarecrow exits the building he is brought down by Robin, who kicks him to the ground. He attempts to get up but is tasered by a campus security guard as police sirens grow closer. After the police question Taylor, Dick and Barbara, they regroup.

"I've heard people say that they saw Robin entering the campus to stop Scarecrow." Said Barbara.

"Fucking Damien... " replies Dick.

"See Babs, this is why he's failing all of his classes! Bruce doesn't patrol in the daytime so that he can have a life as Bruce Wayne. You gotta balance it out. That's what we ALL do!" he says.

"Except Damien, because Damien will do whatever he damn well pleases. Why? Because he's the almighty grandson of Ra's al Ghul and son of Batman!" says Taylor.

"Exactly. Also, don't tell me that you guys are patrolling tonight." says Dick.

"Hell no! I know all of us were working together to take down Scarecrow and he came to us instead. That and I don't have any other leads. Other than Bane, but Bruce has got that covered." replies Taylor.

"Exactly, I don't see why we have to go out if Bruce and Damien are going to be taking care of Bane. Who is like, the only other person we need to be worried about. Nearly everybody is in Blackgate or Arkham already. Joker, Harley Quinn, Two-Face, Killer Croc, Mad Hatter, and now Scarecrow. So unless Riddler decides to reappear, or Mr. Freeze decides he needs to steal something for his research, I don't see why we can't just party tonight." Says Barbara.

"So I met that girl that I was about to spitball. Have you seen her eyes? They're like a green that I've never seen before." Says Taylor.

"Somebody's Crushing! Ooooooh!" Says Dick

"Hey who said I was!"  
"I did, now go invite her to the party."

Taylor approaches the girl that he saved in the hall earlier.

"Hey, me and my friends are having a party at Wayne Manor and I was wondering if you wanted to go."

"Sure, but one question. How do you know Bruce Wayne?" she asks

"I know him through my friend Dick. Bruce took him in after his parents died."

"Ah, well I'll see you there."

Later at Wayne Manor, Damien is sitting on the couch in the study. A shadow looms over him.

"I know what you're going to say. Something like how being Robin is a privilege and stuff."

Damien looked just like his father did at the age of 16, though less disciplined. At this point, Damien had been Robin for 4 years.

"You nearly took the words right out of my mouth Damien. You NEED to focus on your schooling. It would kill me to see you expelled because you disappear during class." Bruce replies. Bruce Wayne is the richest man in Gotham. Underneath all that, he had also become what the city was most famous for, the Batman. Being Batman requires great physical conditioning, which is why he had such stature.

"It won't happen again. So long as nobody shows there face during the day. Somebody has to do it with everybody else only operating at night."

"That's what the GCPD is for Damien. As for tonight, you'll have to stay here. Alfred will join watch you. You can join the party that Dick is having if you want."

"But father, being Robin is my legacy! I was born to be Robin! And I saw my chance to finally take down Scarecrow and I took it, who else was going to do it?"

"Dick said that he had it handled, not only that, but Barbara and Taylor were there too."

"Fine…"

"Good. And if there's alcohol…"

"Not a drop. I know."

"Good, I'm gonna go get ready. It's going to be a busy night."

Taylor parks in front of the Machin residence to wait for his friend Lonnie Machin. Taylor's other friend, Jack, was already in the car.

"Hey Taylor, what do you think he's grabbing this time?" Asks Jack.

Jack had mid length brown hair and was of a but of a husky build, as he played on the football team.

"I would hope he's grabbing the mary jane. Speaking of smoking-"

"I know Jack, I'm going to go get some cigarettes after Lonnie gets his ass out here."

Lonnie leaves his house and holds up a bag of marijuana. Jack and Taylor cheer and honk the horn. Lonnie Machin had long blonde hair with a mustache and goatee. He wore a black shirt with a red circle "A" anarchy symbol on it and a vest covered in patches that said things like "Ramones" "Disobey" and "Punks not dead" with distressed jeans and combat boots. Lonnie got into the car and they drove off and started jamming out to music on Taylor's car, namely one of their favorite songs, Harry Dean by SWMRS.

At Wayne Manor the guests had already largely arrived. Damien had grabbed a bottle of beer and was about to sneak it off when someone snatched it from his hand.

"Oh hey, thanks bud you read my mind!" Said Jason. Jason was once Robin, but was killed by the Joker and then resurrected. He had a build similar to Dick's. He had black hair with a white streak in his hair and blue eyes. It was then that Taylor walked into the room and motioned for Jason to meet him by the stairs.

"What are we going to do about Black Mask Jason?" asks Taylor

"Kill him. Isn't that what we do?"

"Yeah, but don't you have any trust in the system?"

"No. The system is what allows Joker to kill every time he escapes. What will stop him from killing? A bullet to the brain."

"I won't argue with you there. But you don't have to shoot someone whenever they commit a crime."

"Nah, maybe not. But it sure as hell gets the job done quicker."

"So we just go into his penthouse and off him?"

"Yeah, simple!"

"Sounds like a one person job to me."

Dick walks over to Taylor and Jason.

"You guys shouldn't even be THINKING about patrol enjoy yourselves! And Taylor, that girl that you invited, she's here. You should talk to her. I did earlier and she's pretty cool." Dick says.

Taylor goes out on the balcony to meet with the girl he met earlier that day.

"Hey, you enjoying the party?" he asks

"Yeah, there's a lot of people I don't know, and by that, I mean everybody. As you've probably seen I don't have a lot of people that I hang out with. And the people I do hang out with are study buddies."

"I see. My name's Taylor, Taylor Hayes."

"Autumn Black."

"I gotta ask. Why do you always wear a hat?"

"It's a birth defect of… sorts."

Lonnie runs up to Taylor

"So are we going to do this or not?" he says holding up the bag of weed.

"Oh yeah, uh… do you smoke Autumn?" Taylor asks.

"The way I see it it's just a plant. What harm can it do?" she responds.

Taylor and Autumn follow Jack and Lonnie out to the lawn and begin smoking weed.

"You know what the problem is about the government?" Lonnie says.

"Oh great here we go again!" says Taylor

"It's the corporations! They've bought out everything, take a look at who's in office! Don't you know who Donald Trump was before running for office? A businessman! But he's still just a puppet for the true fascist corporations running the show." Lonnie says

"He becomes somebody completely different when he's high." Taylor says to Autumn.

Meanwhile Bruce, on patrol as Batman, comes across a crate with Bane's logo on it. He opens the crate and it's just as he suspected. Four tanks of venom in pristine condition.

Chapter 5: Blackout

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the previous day

Eight men are sitting around a table in a nightclub. They are all clearly stressed.

"What the hell are we going to do now John? I counted ten! Ten civilians! We've been all over the world. Japan, Russia, London. And now that we're in the country with the most advanced police force in the world, we're struggling to get by without unnecessary casualties." one of them says.

Sitting across from him is John Reeves. Over the past few years he'd grown out his hair, recruited seven of the most skilled soldiers he could find. There used ten until a heist that went wrong where ten civilians were gunned down and two of the mercenaries were killed by police.

"Relax. Yeah, we lost Dave and Joe. But they would want us to keep going."

"No, no they wouldn't! They were some of the cleanest guys I know. Do you have a plan at all?" another mercenary asks.

"We need to… shit, the cops are here!" John says.

They all run into the back alley to get away from the nightclub and grab their stash of weapons in order to defend themselves against the police. The cops enter the alley and are gunned down by John and his men.

"We gotta get out of here." John says

"We gotta get as far away from here."

Soon the sun rises as they approach a bridge. John lights up a cigarette as the sun rises. An arabic man approaches them.

"John Reeves?" he asks. He has swept back hair, grey on the sides and black on the top. He has green eyes, a goatee and tan skin and spoke in a British accent.

"Depends, are you looking for the man or the mercenary?" he responds.

"John Reeves, better known as Overkill."

"That's me. What do you need?"

"We CAN'T do another job! Like you saw last night, the cops are on our tails!" one of the men says.

"Oh, I don't have a job for you. In Dubai at least. I will fly you for free to Gotham city, I have a… competitor I need you to take care of."

"Just who are you?" John asks.

"My name is Leland McCauley. I would like to set up my business in Gotham, but there's one company that is in the way."

"Just say who." John says.

"Wayne Enterprises. I need you to steal some of their prototypes, bomb Wayne tower and kill Lucius Fox. You should be able to do all three in one run."

"Sounds good! But one question Mr. McCauley. How are we getting to Gotham?"

"No need to worry, I have a private jet that will take you to to Gotham. All expenses paid."

Once they get on the plane John pulls out his laptop.

"Alright, if we're going to do this we're going to have to get a few things. This guy we're working for said that he'd provide a few things for us. He already has the explosives for us, but we need to get whatever else we need. Weapons, etc. First thing we're going to get is called venom, it's a super steroid. In order to get that, we need to see this guy. He's a fellow mercenary named Bane. He controls the whole supply and the trafficking of the substance, but he's the only known user."

He points at the laptop screen showing a picture of the big, brutish Bane. Bane wears a steel mask with a built in breathing apparatus. The mask has green tubes sticking out o the back of it leading into a big tank on his back. He also wears black and grey body armor. He looked to be about 6'8.

"With this venom, we can turn one of you into a super soldier. Now, the second guy we need to see is named Oswald Cobblepot but locals call him the Penguin. He's a weapons dealer and racketeer. He should be easy to convince."

He pointed at his laptop screen showing a picture of the Penguin. Penguin was about 5'5 and was fairly thin, he wore a tuxedo and a top hat with a monocle and had dark, short hair and looked to be about 30.

Gotham City, the night of Dick Grayson's party

After their plane landed, Leland gave them directions to Bane's compound. John knocked on the door and someone opened up the window slot on the door.

"Who the hell are you?" he said in a gruff voice.

"My name is John Reeve's but you can call me Overkill. I lead a group of mercenaries named Blackout. Can I speak to the boss?" John replied

The man closes the window slot and shouts something then opens the door.

"You have 5 minutes with the boss."

They are lead to a table where Bane is sitting tossing a knife up in the air. He then stabs it into the table. He had his mask off too, although he wasn't hideous like John thought. He was just bald and had a beard with a few scars here and there. John sits down across from the physically intimidating man.

"Hello Mr. Bane, is that your real name or is it just your uh… alias?" John says

Bane leans forward

"Do you want to know why I wear a mask, amigo?" he says in a thick Mexican accent.

"Please enlighten me."

"I don't wear a mask to conceal my identity. You can't conceal the identity of a man who has no identity. I wear it to intimidate my opponents. My name is just Bane. Now, how can I help a fellow mercenary?" Bane asks.

"We need some of your venom."

Bane laughs.

"I have people coming from all over to ask for some of this jugo. I tell them no. If they want some, they have to work for it. Supplies are limited, the only place they manufacture venom is in my home country of Santa Prisca. There is an ongoing civil war going on there and the burro who runs the country has increased patrol on the waters and has any venom being trafficked out of the country seized. So unfortunately, I cannot even make an offer on it."

"John, we've hit rock bottom enough! Let's go." says John's right hand man.

"Pete please! If you could just give me one last minute!"

"No… no I'm done. I am done!" he says.

John stabs him and he falls next to Bane.

"Nobody likes a cobarde, a coward." says Bane.

Bane picks up pete with both arms and lifts him above his head before slamming him on his knee and breaking his back, killing him.

"It looks like your numbers are dwindling."

"Yes, yes they are!"

"So I'll tell you what. If you transport one last crate of venom from the docks, I will offer you some of my men and the means to recruit more. You could have the whole city in the palm of your hand."

"I think we have a deal." John shakes Bane's giant hand and sets off with the last 6 of his men.

As they get to the docks they notice a shadow on a rooftop that looked like a bat standing upright.

"What's that?" Says one of John's men.

"What do you think it is? It's the bat, get into a position he won't see you in." John says.

They all hide as Batman drops down and investigates the crates, he opens it up to find four tanks of venom. John throws a smoke grenade at Batman and scramble all opening fire but missing. One of them lunges at Batman with a combat knife. Batman twists his arm backwards and hits him in the chest, sending him to the ground. Another one lunges at him with a crowbar and is thrown over his shoulder and then kicked in the head. The rest of the operatives gain up on Batman in an attempt to bring him down. Batman begins blocking all of their attacks, and throwing fists into their faces. Before too long they overtake Batman and beat him with Batons.

"Stop!" John shouts out to his men.

"You came for me, so I'm going to let you have me." he says

He shoots Batman in the chest with a shotgun. Batman gets back up and throws a fist at John, who blocks it and delivers a high powered kick to Batman sending him flying. One of his men punches Batman in the face, but is met with a roundhouse kick. John runs and tackles Batman to the ground and begins his beatdown on Batman. He gets off and picks up batman by the cape and throws Batman into the side of a shipping crate. One of John's operatives hits hits Batman in the head with a baseball bat and sends him to his knees. John kicks Batman in the gut and sends him into a car. John approaches Batman with a confident stride.

"Now let's see what's under the hood." he says as he removes Batman's cowl.

"Bruce Wayne?" he laughs

"Gotham City has been afraid of a billionaire for the past 15 years? Give me a break."

He walks off with the rest of the operatives and the crate of venom.

Chapter 6: Penguin's Umbrella

"Alfred, I've been compromised. Requesting…. extraction!" Bruce groans.

"My word! What happened?" Alfred says in a worried tone over the com device in Bruce's cowl.

"No time for that, I need extraction now! I'll explain later!"

"On it's way sir."

The Batmobile arrives to Bruce, bleeding internally. He gets in and presses autopilot to get back to the Batcave. Once he gets there, Alfred grabs Bruce and puts him on a medical table. It's then that Taylor, Dick, Damien, Barbara and Jason enter the Batcave.

"Father!" shouts Damien.

"Holy shit, what happened?" says Dick.

I got jumped a group of military operatives while investigating a shipment of Venom. I could've taken them, but their leader had some kind of cybernetic prosthetic. Every kick felt like I had been hit by a truck."

"I would've been able to stop them. You should've just taken me with you!" says Damien.

"There's a reason I said no Damien! These guys were highly trained. Even before their leader entered the fight they nearly had me. Whatever happens, they need to be stopped."

"It's only 10:00, we can still catch them." said Dick.

"If you go back out there I beg of you, be careful. These guys are dangerous. And Damien, I need you to stay here."

"Alright. Jason, Taylor, get suited up and meet me at Jezebel plaza."

About a half an hour later, they all meet back at Jezebel Plaza Dick Grayson as Nightwing, Jason Todd Red Hood, and Taylor Hayes as Nightmare. Dick's suit was all black, with a blue "V" across his whole chestplate nd complete with a black domino mask. Jason's suit was a black kevlar vest with red bat logo, black cargo pants and a trench coat complete with a tactical red helmet. Finally, Nightmare's suit consisted of a black tactical vest with a bandolier and black cargo pants with a tattered cape and a domino mask to top it off.

"Did all the guests leave?" asks Jason

"Yeah, they left about a half an hour ago." replied Dick.

"It gets boring without the life of the party I guess. Dick Grayson everybody!" said Taylor

"Alright, I want you guys out on the streets questioning everybody. Go to the first person you think of when it comes to people of this nature."

They all split off to go and start interrogating people on the streets.

Taylor goes to the iceberg lounge, home of Oswald Cobblpot aka the Penguin. He noticed armed guards all around. And not in the traditional bodyguard sense. More like military sense. These were some of Bane's men that were promised. Taylor stealthily took out the men that were needed in order to get into the Penguin's office. When he got there, he heard voices talking back and forth about weapons, one of them being Cobblepot's voice. As soon as he heard weapons loading, he knew there was a weapons deal to be broken up. He kicked open the door and somersaulted forward to stab two operatives in the legs. He stood up and drew two loaded pistols and shot them both in the head. He pointed the pistols in the back of the operative in front of him. He was wearing black tactical gear with red lining and a tactical half mask. Taylor looked down to see cybernetic legs, John Reeves.

"Your the son of a bitch that almost killed my friend!" says Taylor.

"Please, how many fucking vigilantes do I have to deal with tonight."

John blasts Taylor with a shotgun, sending him out of the office doors.

"You better take care of 'em for me you bloody wanker!" Says Cobblepot.

John approaches Taylor with a magnum revolver and presses it against Taylor's head. Taylor quickly stands up and throws John off a balcony about 20 feet off the ground, sending him crashing to the ballroom floor below. Taylor jumps down to the floor to take the fight to John.

"May I have this dance?" Taylor says taking a bow.

"What the hell are you wearing that can withstand a shotgun blast at point blank range?"

Taylor just smiles, bearing his fangs.

"What the?" says John.

"How rude of me? My name is Nightmare. And what is yours fine gentleman?" says Taylor mockingly.

"Just call me Overkill." John replies before firing off a few shots at Taylor with two handguns.

Taylor dodges it and does a backflip before landing on a table. He crouches on top of the table.

"If they call you Overkill, I'd like to see it." he says.

"Get the weapons loaded into the truck! I won't be very long." John says pulling out a kukri.

"Alright Nightmare, let's dance."

"Tsk tsk. You brought a kukri to a sabre." Nightmare replies pulling out a sabre. He lunges towards John, who parrys and kicks Taylor into an ice sculpture of a Penguin.

"Aye! Be careful with that!" shouts Penguin.

John approaches Taylor who gets back up and delivers a spinning heel kick to John's face followed by an uppercut, which sends John to the ground. Taylor then picks John up by the leg and throws him to the ground again. Opening up his trench coat, he reveals hidden throwing knives and throws two at John. One hitting him in the hand and the other in the leg.

Taylor picks up the sabre and wildly swings at John. With a concealed blade, John violently stabs Taylor multiple times before cutting his throat. Taylor gets back up breathing heavily.

"Firing squad!" John shouts.

Operatives line up in front of Taylor and fire hundreds of rounds into Taylor with high powered automatic military grade assault rifles. Taylor drops to the ground. Bleeding profusely before the wounds healed themselves. Then the lights turn off. Two gunshots are fired with two operatives hitting the ground. The operatives blindly fire in the dark. Taylor gets back up and stabs an operative with his sabre and slashes another one across the throat and kicks him to the ground. The lights turn on to reveal Jason, still geared up being the one that took out the operatives that dropped Taylor. Just then, about ten operatives run in and point their rifles at Jason and Taylor, laser sights aglow.

"You ready?" says Taylor, drawing two revolvers

"Always." says Jason.

Taylor grabs Jason's shoulder and transforms them both into a swarm of bats. They appear behind the operatives and begin firing into the group of operatives dropping them. The operatives return fire. Taylor stands in front of Jason to take the damage. After he runs out of ammunition, he discards his pistols and pulls out a bowie knife and rushes the operatives who just keep firing and leaving bullet holes in Taylor. Taylor stabs an operative in the chest and pulls it down and out stabs another operative in the side of the head, pulls it out and slashes the third operative's throat and in the same motion flips it upside down and stabs the fourth operative in the side of the neck, blood gushing all over Taylor's face. Taylor is shot in the back by an operative who he grabs, bends back his head and bites his neck, taking a chunk out of it once he had drained his blood.

"Ho-ly shit!" Jason says to Taylor, who is covered in blood, both his own and his enemies. An operative cowers and runs out the back entrance.

"I'll take care of this guy, you find out what you want to do to penguin." Taylor says to Jason, picking up his revolvers and reloading them.

As he follows exits the building the operative catches sight of him and holds a random civilian hostage, who just happened to be Autumn Black.

"You stay over there freak! Let me go and I won't blow this poor girl's brains out!"

Taylor makes his voice go deeper.

"You do not want to piss me off! You're going to die tonight and there's nothing you can do about it!"

He quickly draws one of his revolvers and shoots the operative in the hand, disarming him. He lunges at him and throws him with his immense strength into a car. He knees him in the gut and lifts his knife above his head.

"Stop! He doesn't have to die. He can be faced with his decisions in prison." Autumn says.

"You're right. But if he decides to come back, there will be no second chances." Taylor responds and delivers a knee strike to the operative's head, knocking him unconscious.

"You stay safe out here, Gotham is a dangerous place." Taylor says before going back inside Iceberg lounge.

When he goes back in he sees Penguin tied up above an artificial lake in the lounge with a shark circling below. Jason is drinking a bottle of fine wine while watching Penguin panic.

"Taylor! Okay first, you look like shit, and second. Look at this shit!" says Jason.

"You better hope that I don't get out of here! Because when I do, I'm ripping that bloody mask off of your head and adding it to my collection! Cut me down you wanker!" yells Penguin in anger.

Taylor goes to sit down with Jason but heard police sirens.

"Jason… grab as many bottles as you can and run! We got police about 5 minutes away." says Taylor.

"Aye! Do you know how much those cost? Come back here you bastards!" Penguin shouts.

Grabbing all the bottles of wine that they can, Jason and Taylor dash out of the building.

About a half an hour later Dick arrives at the scene as Nightwing. He approaches Commissioner Gordon.

"How many casualties?" he asks.

"Eleven. Penguin was quick to give them up. Says it was Nightmare and Red Hood. He wouldn't give up his client though. Where's Batman?" says Gordon

"He got attacked by a group of what he described to be highly trained military personnel. Do any of the corpses have cybernetic legs?"

"No, just the usual type. They all had dog tags and some of them were members of Bane's gang."

"What are people like this doing in Gotham City?"

Chapter 6: The Black Swan

Autumn got home an hour after she had been held hostage. All she could think about was her savior. How dark and mysterious he was. She had always had an interest in vigilantism in Gotham, but after being there for 3 months she had never seen one until tonight. But even just being there for 3 months, she had realized that criminals had more freedom to do anything. But one thing she realized is that criminals were all afraid of one thing, vigilantes. She made a difference in Norway when she liberated her village from Darkwater. Besides, if nothing else, she could get closer to Nightmare.

At about 9:00 in the morning, Blackout entered Gotham bank and fired at security guards killing several. As soon as they get to the vault door, John kicks it down and they loot the money. After the robbery, they get back to their compound.

"Fuck Leland! He got us to the states and what did we do? We found other opportunities! And the Batman? We beat him!" said John.

At the compound they had ordered all kinds of drugs and women. A dagger gets pressed against John's throat.

"What kind of mercenary are you? I have 2 million dollars resting on a contract!" Says Leland, the man who got them to Gotham.

"Is this guy real?" says John

Leland presses his dagger against his throat harder.

"Does this feel real enough to you. 5 million… if you don't complete my contract by the end of the week, I'll make sure you won't have another contract again."

"Meaning?"

"I'll hunt you down and kill you personally."

Frustrated with their current situation being stuck in a contract with no other way out other than doing the contract or being killed, John took a walk in the coventry district. While he was walking, he saw a group of anarchists burning down a building with molotov cocktails. He approaches someone who looked like the leader, shouting through a megaphone.

"We have been deceived and lied to. This nation's government is being run by fascist corporations! We need to rise up and show them that we are not afraid of them! Show them not to mess with the people!" The leader says.

"Is the building occupied?" asks John.

"No, there were a few security guards but some of my other guys took them somewhere to beat on them for a while. We don't like to kill people."

"What's your name kid?"

"Lonnie, Lonnie Machin. But you can call me Anarky."

"What if I told you that you could dispatch the biggest corporate figure in Gotham?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, I mean Wayne Enterprises!"

"I'm afraid I couldn't do that alone."

"You won't have to, I'll even pay."

"Give me the details."

"Me and some of my men are going to bomb Wayne Enterprises. Meet us at Wayne Enterprises tomorrow at Wayne Enterprises, 10:00 P.M."

"I'll be there."

"Alright, catch you later Anarky."

John departs as Lonnie continues to shout protests through the megaphone.

Autumn had made up her mind about becoming a vigilante she put on some combat boots, leather leggings, a corset, a cape, and a domino mask. She took a hunting knife and headed out into the night. It wasn't too long before she spotted Taylor as Nightmare on a rooftop. She approaches him.

"Watcha up to?"

Taylor quickly turns around.

"Who are you?"

"I haven't come up with a name for myself yet. I've only been at this for about 20 minutes and I haven't even hit anybody yet."

"Well, let's change that. I'm breaking up a drug trafficking ring, looks to be cocaine."

Autumn follows Taylor to a warehouse belonging to Sionis industries. There, they find cocaine being loaded onto trucks by men wearing masks.

"Alright. I'm going to use a thermite to torch one of the trucks, we need the other one as evidence to be able to put away whoever is behind this."

Taylor throws a thermite grenade into the back of the truck. Setting the drugs ablaze.

"Put out the fire! Oh man, the boss is going to be pissed!" says one of the men.

"Why do they all wear masks? Is it to conceal their identity?" asks Autumn.

"Hmmm. No, they look like false faces. Which means they work for Black Mask." if he's here, we'll be able to apprehend him with enough evidence to put him away for good, if not for a while."

"what if he isn't here?"

"Then we'll have enough evidence for an arrest warrant."

"Why not just-"

"Less talking, more action. I'll take the guys at the trucks, and you take the guys on the bridge. Do you know how to fight?"

"Watch me."

Autumn drops down on the bridge and begins fighting the two armed men on the bridge. They both charge at Autumn. She flips over one, causing them to collide. She jumps over the railing to join Taylor. They start to get rushed by six henchmen. Nightmare rushes forward and delivers a knee strike to one's face, then grabs another one and throws him into a stack of pallets and begins duking it out with the third. The three that Autumn was facing open fire at her. She ducks behind a crate and pops up as they are loading to throw spikes into two of the henchmen's shoulders. She catapults herself into the air and kicks the last one in the head, knocking him out. Just then Taylor crashes through a wall with the last thug he was fighting.

"Where is Sionis?" he questions the thug.

"You won't kill me."

Taylor opens his mouth as if to bite the henchman's neck.

"Okay I'll talk! He's at a penthouse, the address is in my pocket! You won't really kill me will you?"

Taylor looks at him and picks him up, putting him on his feet.

"No, but you need to start over. Wake these men up and get out of the city for now take your families with you if you have any. If any of these men try to stop you, place one of these in their pockets." Taylor hands the thug a small red tag.

"What's this for?" he asks.

"Better you don't know. I need you to do one more thing, I need you to testify against Sionis at his trial. Promise me you'll do those things?"

"Yes! Without a second thought!"

"Good, I wish you well in your future endeavors."

Meanwhile at the penthouse Roman Sionis's butler runs in frantically.

"Mr. Sionis! The dealers just called, they said there product wasn't delivered. They are quite angry!" he says.

"The boys said they were almost done when I left." he says in his italian accent.

"Sir, I think we can draw one conclusion from this."

"Right, those vigilante bastards!"

He walks into his office and opens up a case to pull out a black skull mask. During a mental breakdown he had years ago, he had dug up his father's coffin and carved the mask out of it.

"Hello old friend, it's been a while." he says putting on the mask and grabbing an smg with a drum magazine. Sionis grabs his bodyguards and aim at the doors going into the penthouse Taylor and Autumn crash through the skylight taking out two bodyguards in the process.

"Would you look at that? Nightmare's got himself a little girlfriend!" says Sionis.

"It's over Black Mask. I have enough evidence to put you away for a long time." says Taylor.

"Ah you've already talked too much. Kill him!" Sionis barks.

The bodyguards fire away at Taylor and Autumn. Taylor pulls Autumn behind the couch and pulls put two Schofield revolvers.

"Whoa whoa whoa! You're going to kill these guys but you'll put Sionis away?" says Autumn

"His apprehension will go a lot finer if I just dispatch them and then take out Sionis!" Taylor Responds.

"We can do this without anybody dying!"

"Fine!"

Taylor jumps over the couch and throws four throwing knives at the bodyguards, taking them all down. Autumn launches herself off of the couch and dropkicks Sionis through the doors into his office.

"There's a business ledger on his desk. I'm going to restrain him."

Sionis quickly gets back up and picks up his SMG.

"Say hello to my little friend!" he says sweeping back and forth while firing it.

Taylor tackles Autumn into the couch tipping it over. Noticing the substantial amount of blood now staining the area around the couch. Sionis laughs.

"You come into my home and you take out my people? I'll show you!"

He walks around to the other side the couch to be met with Taylor's fist in his gut, driving him into the wall. Taylor then picks him up and drives him through a wooden coffee table in the middle of the room. He takes of Sionis's mask.

"Since Carmine Falcone died thirteen years ago, you've had a death grip on this city. All it took was one slip up from your men and enough evidence to show for it. Batman would've stopped you, but he was busy with more pressing matters. Sure, you don't directly kill dozens of people like the Joker or kill high ranking officials like Deadshot, but you ruin hundreds of lives without you even knowing it. Tonight. I put your thirteen year reign of terror to an end." says Taylor staring Sionis in the eye.

"You stupid kid, you have no idea what I'm capable of." Sionis laughs. "I'll just be proven innocent and be on my way, and there's nothing you or your little bitch can do about it. Hell, I'll be devoted to hunting the two of you down once I get out." he stands up.

Autumn kicks him in the gut, causing him to cough up blood and fall to his knees.

"Don't you know who I am? I'm the fucking Black Mask!"

Autumn kicks him in the back of the head, sending him to the floor asleep. Taylor notices two gunshot wounds in Autumn's torso. One in her hip and one in her ribs.

"You need help. You've been shot." he says.

"I am? I didn't notice until you brought it up."

Taylor puts his hand near the wound in her ribs, but pauses and looks her in the eyes. She nods. He puts his hand on her ribs to examine the gunshot wound. She twitches a little bit.

"Did I hurt you?" he asks.

"No, I didn't even feel it when I got shot."

Taylor laughs "Maybe it's because they went through me first." he pulls up his shirt to show bullet wounds closing by themselves.

"Holy shit! You're… you're an actual vampire!"

"Damn strait. Are you and actual elf?" Taylor says touching Autumn's ear.

"I think so. Judging from what I can remember from my parents, I have their ears."

"Let's go back to my place and get you patched up."

They go to Taylor's lair, an underground sort of penthouse covered in moss, looking almost like a small modern castle with a body of water reflecting the moon and overlooking the horizon. Taylor is stitching up the last wound in Autumn's side. She is wearing only a bra and her leggings.

"I always thought secret lairs were run down places out of sight. Yours is literally on the beach, it's just only accessible by a hidden hatch." she sits on Taylor's lap.

"You just need to look for the right place. And it's big enough, why don't you drop your suit off here sometime and I can keep it for you?" says Taylor

"Sure, I just need a name and I don't know what to think of."

They both look out into the sea and see a swan wading around.

"You know, as far as vampiric tradition goes, a human that supports a vampire is called a black swan." Says Taylor.

"Black Swan, I like the sound of that. It's been a long night." she says falling asleep.

Chapter 7: Contract

Autumn awoke in Nightmare's lair, but he was gone. A note was left on the coffee table in front of her.

"_Black Swan,_

_Well it is true that I am a vampire, there are some things you should know about me. You may be inclined to look for me in a coffin somewhere, but you won't have any luck. I do indeed have a life outside of being Nightmare. I only have my abilities, my fangs, and even my scars during the night. So if we cross paths, you may not recognize me. Anyways, thanks for helping me out with Black Mask. My last partner was wanting to kill him. If you want to keep doing this, meet me here tonight. See you then!"_

As soon as she got to school she spotted Jack, Taylor, and Lonnie.

"How was everybody's night?" She asks as she hugs Taylor.

"I led another demonstration, I do that every other day of the week." Says Lonnie.

"I just worked." said Jack.

"I met someone pretty cool last night, wish it would've been under better circumstances though." said Taylor.

"Hey, I met someone too." says Autumn.

Taylor and Autumn look each other in the eyes. Taylor could see it in her eyes. She knew his secret. She knew he was Nightmare. Once school was over, Autumn pulls Taylor aside.

"I got your note this morning, I just want to say I had fun working with you last night. I don't know how you're able to do it night in and night out." She says.

"Yeah, it's not easy. Especially when someone knows how to kill you. There was one group I was going after a while ago called Interang, that was the closest I think I've ever come to dying aside from Deathstroke." says Taylor.

"I haven't figured out what kills me. I was thrown off of a balcony during the Norwegian resistance, but I just got right back up. And also, why did you just admit that you were Nightmare?"

Taylor puts his hands on her shoulders.

"Because I know you want to do what's right."

Lonnie walks past them.

"Hey Lonnie, weren't we going to go watch the Gotham vs Metropolis game?" Asks Taylor.

"I can't. I have a sort of demonstration tonight, it will change everything." Lonnie says.

"Oh, well… enjoy yourselves." Taylor says

"Shouldn't we be making a change too?" Says Autumn.

"Let's get started."

Taylor and Autumn suit up and head out into the city. Upon reaching a rooftop, Taylor turns on his com device.

"Nightmare checking in, over." he says.

Within a few minutes he gets responses over his com device.

"Nightwing checking in, over."

"Red Hood checking in, over."

"Robin Checking in, over."

"Batgirl checking in, over"

A few minutes later one last voice comes over the com.

"Batman checking in, over."

"Bruce, are you sure you should be doing this?" asks Dick.

"I tried to convince master Bruce to stay but he insisted. I'm not one to disagree with my employer. All I ask is that he takes it easy tonight." says Alfred.

Autumn finally gets her com working.

"Black Swan checking in, over."

For a moment there is silence until Bruce breaks it.

"Who are you?" he asks in an attempt to intimidate her.

"She's my partner." Says Taylor.

"Are you sure she can be trusted?"

"She just wants to do what's right, hell she tracked me down herself to help."

"I'll need to see it first. Anyways, I wish you all the best of luck with what you're working on tonight." Bruce signs off.

"So what do we do on nights like this. We already took down Black Mask, Penguin is in Blackgate too, who else is there?" Autumn asks

"Well for starters one of the tags that I gave to that guy working for Black Mask is going off." Taylor says.

"What does that mean?" asks Autumn.

"It means he's a loyalist. And he'll likely do everything he can to get Black Mask out of prison." Taylor says loading an M1911 pistol.

Before too long, Taylor spots the loyalist going into an alley to smoke. Taylor follows him. As he lights up a cigarette, Taylor throws him into the wall and shoots him in the head. He rejoins Autumn on a rooftop.

"What warrants taking a life?" she asks.

"I only kill people if they truly deserve it or can't change, if they make it personal by hurting people I care about, if they will die for their employer, if they have some sort of diplomatic immunity, or they are unjustly acquitted. I killed all those people in the iceberg lounge because they wouldn't surrender. I let those Black Mask gang members go because I knew they were afraid."

Meanwhile Blackout gets to Wayne Enterprises and begins firing at people in the lobby, killing a few.

"Where are the bombs?" Asks one of the operatives.

"I gave them to the kid." Says John referring to Lonnie.

Two of the operatives enter an office and take hostages.

"The boss says we need to locate and execute Lucius Fox. Find him?"

"Negatory."

The room fills with smoke.

"What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know, thermal on!"

They turn on their thermal cameras and laser sights to track the target. The first operative gets struck in the temple and the other one gets a batarang stuck into the thermal camera and struck in the face, then thrown through a desk. The other operative fires blindly but runs out of ammunition. Then, a tall dark shadow rises in front of him.

"Holy shit…." he says realizing who it was. It was him, The Dark Knight, The Caped Crusader, The Batman. Batman throws him into a bookshelf and pushes it over on top of him.

"Nightmare, if you want to prove that your partner can be trusted, come to Wayne Tower. Nightwing is already here, it's time to take down Blackout."

Dick is in the lobby trying to figure out how to save the hostages while perched on a gargoyle. The operatives were all surrounding the hostages and had thermal imaging goggles. If he threw a smoke pellet, the operatives would kill the hostages. He needed to assess the situation. Maybe he would be able to distract them. He threw a wingding, his own version of a batarang. The operatives got a little leery and made sure that their guns were loaded. Dick activated the wingding, setting off an electromagnetic pulse that knocked out the lights and thermal imaging cameras. That's when he swung into action. He grapples to one if the operatives and catapults into a kick, knocking him into a flower bed. The lights start to strobe, causing the operatives to be more afraid of Dick. Every strike landed quick and precise. Every strike of his escrima sticks shattering the operative's plexiglass visors. The lights come back on. It had appeared that all the operatives had been taken out. An operative sneaks up on Dick aiming a shotgun at the back of his head. Just then, a bullet shoots through a window on above Dick hitting the operative in the head and killing him.

Meanwhile, John is just about to breach the door to Lucius Fox's office. Bruce drops in through a vent in the ceiling.

"Get behind cover Lucius. They're just on the other side of the door."

Lucius hides behind his desk as John kicks the door open. He's followed by Lonnie and two other operatives. Batman punches the operative on the left in the face, flooring him. He grabs the barrel of John's gun and points it upwards and kicks him, disarming him and causing him to slam into the operative on the right. Lonnie turns on his stun baton.

"He's mine Anarky. Go plant the other bombs."

Lonnie runs off to go and do the deed.

Bruce activates his com device.

"Anarky is here with bombs, he's working for Blackout. I need you to go and stop him. I've got Overkill where I want him."

Dick sent Taylor and Autumn to take care of Lonnie while he saves the hostages. They find him by the helipad planting a bomb. Autumn throws a knife into the timer, disabling it.

"Damn it! Don't you know what I'm capable of? Do you know what I could accomplish with Blackout?" says Lonnie.

"Anarky, you may be a thorn in everyone's side, but you have never, ever crossed the line like this. You would never kill anybody. Disarm the bomb and walk away. This isn't you." Says Taylor.

"You don't know me at all! If we take down Wayne Enterprises, it just brings more morale to the liberation of Gotham."

"By killing innocent people trying to provide for their families?"

"Collateral damage. Besides, the whole country is run by oppressive, fascist corporations like Wayne Enterprises. Join me, and we can accomplish great things together."

Autumn throws a knife into Lonnie's shoulder.

"Guess not." he says turning on his stun baton. He charges at Autumn and swings his baton. With one fluid back kick, she sends him stumbling away from her. Taylor hits Lonnie with a combination of punches. Lonnie recovers and jabs Taylor in the chest with the baton and sends him back. Autumn throws another knife into his shoulder and hits him with a series of kicks, sending him to the ground. He springs back up and extends his baton into an electrically charged cane. Lonnie swings it wildly and hits Autumn in the shoulder. He swings at Taylor, who pulls out a machete to block the strikes from the cane.

"I don't want to hurt you more than I already have Anarky." Says Taylor.

"I won't let you. You'll be out cold as I finish my mission." he jumps in the air and swings at Autumn again. She catches the staff and kicks him in the gut before delivering a knee to Lonnie's face, knocking off his mask and sending him to the ground.

"Lonnie listen to reason!" says Autumn.

"Swan, don't do what I think you're going to do!" says Taylor.

"You say my name like you know me." says Lonnie.

Autumn removes her mask and hood.

"I'm your friend. I want to help you." she says.

"I'm helping the people. And most importantly, I'm doing what needs to be done to free you." says Lonnie.

"I look up to you Lonnie. You go out there every other day and you preach about what you believe in. Yeah, you sometimes hurt people. Sometimes you start a fire, but you never ever kill anybody and you do it for social justice. But if you blow up this building, you'll kill hundreds of people. People you are trying to free. If you kill these people, you'll become the tyrant."

Lonnie looks at his mask as he picks it up off the ground. As he does lightning strikes, illuminating the anarchy symbol on his mask.

"The more you're part of it, the more you realize. Anarchy isn't about chaos and tearing things down. It's about creating something new under the idea that people should be free to be themselves and not have to worry about oppressive rule that only serves their own interests." says Lonnie solemnly.

"Exactly, all that Blackout is doing is serving their own interests."

"What the hell am I doing?" Lonnie says, hitting the button to disarm the bombs.

John gets into combat stance with a combat knife drawn, ready to take down the Batman again. He swings wildly as Bruce catches the blade in his forearm blades, snaps the knife blade and delivers a palm strike to John's chest. He grabs John by the shoulder straps of his kevlar vest.

"If I were you, I would've gone with Kabar."

John headbutts Bruce, causing his own head to bleed. He attempts to deliver a kick to Bruce's head. Bruce grabs John's leg and slaps on an electrical charge, which electrifies his metal leg and sends an electrical charge through John's body. Bruce tackles John through some railing and sends him crashing down another level next to the stairs. John gets up and pulls out his Sig Sauer, firing off five shots of which he missed all. Bruce throws a batarang into John's hand and causes him to drop the gun. He laughs and pulls out the batarang.

"Here we are Batman, man to man." John says.

He lunges and is kicked in the gut.

"Truth be told Overkill."

He punches John in the face and grabs him by the vest.

"You were never a man." he says ripping off John's mask.

He stuns John with his cape and delivers a beatdown. John throws a punch at Bruce but Bruce dodges and delivers another combination of strikes. John falls to his knees and Batman delivers one more strike to his jaw, knocking him out cold as he spits blood.

"Nightwing, how's the progress on the hostage situation?" Bruce says over the comlink.

"Good, I've got all the hostages on the first floor cleared and most of the offices, I'm headed to the meeting room next." Dick Replies.

"Nightmare, how are you and Black Swan doing?" Bruce asks Taylor over the comlink.

"Anarky has been stopped. He did the right thing and disabled all the bombs." Taylor replies.

"Good, I'll extract Lucius. Batman out." says Bruce.

"You can come out now Lucius."

Lucius comes out from behind the desk.

"Have I ever seen you fight before?" he says.

"Probably." Bruce responds.

"Well regardless, I'm impressed."

Bruce takes Lucius down to the Batmobile and puts him in the passenger seat.

John comes back to consciousness with his face all bloodied. He looks up to see the elevator open. Lonnie Machin steps out.

"I take it the bombs are planted?" he says.

Lonnie strikes John with his cane.

"You used me! If you're going to take down a government, you need to inspire people, expose the right people for the fraud they are. Well you're a false god, and tonight you'll be exposed." Lonnie says

Lonnie swings his cane at John again, but is blocked. John delivers a powered kick to Lonnie sending him over by a window.

"Look at how weak you are." he says before pushing Lonnie out of the window. John looks down, watching Lonnie plummet to his doom on top of a car.

Chapter 8: Arkham Asylum

Taylor, Autumn and Dick exit the building to see someone being carried off of a crushed car and into an ambulance. Taylor approaches the ambulance driver.

"Do you have a name on the victim?" he asks.

"Yeah. According to the ID card in his wallet, his name is Lonnie Machin."

Taylor shakes his head in disbelief.

"He a friend?"

"Was there anything that he said?

"He said something about stopping overkill. Whatever that means."

Enraged, Taylor headed to the security room. As he observed the cameras he saw the car that John took. He caught sight of the license plate and started tracking it.

John gets on his phone while driving to Arkham Asylum.

"Leland? It's Overkill. Listen the plan went south, my bomb guy took a fall. We had four different vigilantes after us and the Bat got the upper hand. I think I'm going to die, but I'm going to do something big. And if I succeed at this, don't kill me."

"I'm listening." Leland McCauley says over the phone.

"I'm going to go and free the most dangerous inmates from Arkham Asylum. This will create a diversion so I can potentially go back and finish the contract."

"Hmm. That's good enough. I need the address of your safehouse."

"Alright, It's 298 West, 360 south."

"Good, if you make it this I'll see you tomorrow."

John stumbles into Arkham Asylum gunning down guards and anybody else in his path. Before too long, he reaches the maximum security room and kills the guard in the control room. He hits the open cell switch and soon inmates begin walking past him. First a man with half of his face burned. He flips a coin.

"That… That was unexpected." he says.

The next person to walk out was a man wearing a top hat, sipping tea.

"The time is done that all of Batman's work comes undone." he laughs.

Then a man walks out carrying a burlap sack.

"Finally some fresh air, he says."

A woman with green skin and plants for clothes walks past.

"I could kiss you right now, it's to die for." She says seductively

Then a tall man with scaly skin walks past an snarls.

Finally, a couple walk towards John. They both have pale white skin, the girl has black and red hair and wears black and red lipstick. The man has green hair and has red lips.

"Harley, go wait outside. I got something I need to say to this man."

The girl kisses him on the cheek.

"Yes puddin'" she says exiting the building.

He points the gun at John.

"So you're the Joker… I thought you'd be shorter for some reason." says John.

"Damn right I'm the Joker, and what would make you think I was shorter?" the man says confirming his identity.

"Look, if you're going to kill me do it. I have a hunch that someone else is after me anyways."

The Joker looks up.

"Nah. If that's who I think it is, you're right. You aren't making it out of the Asylum alive!"

The Joker runs out of the building. Taylor jumps through a window and lands in front of John. He slowly turns around to face John.

"You killed my friend…"

"That's what I do, I'm a soldier! And I do it for glory."

"You aren't hurting anybody else ever again."

John runs towards Taylor, who disappears into a swarm of bats and reappears behind him. John throws a punch that Taylor catches. Taylor squeezes John's hand, causing him to writhe in agony. John reverses it and kicks Taylor through the door leading outside the asylum. The rain begins to fall heavily, lightning strikes and thunder claps. John pulls a machete out of a sheathe he was wearing. He charges at Taylor and buries the machete in Taylor's shoulder and punches him in the face. Taylor looks back to see the look of terror on John's face. Taylor kicks John away and pulls the machete out and throws it aside. He leaps into the air and knees John in the face, sending him into a wall. John shoots Taylor in the face. Blood splatters all over him, but to no avail as Taylor snags the gun from him and shoots him in the gut. Taylor hits John in the face with the gun then picks him up and throws him into a tree. John gets up and throws a kick at Taylor, who catches it and flips him over. John stabs Taylor in the foot with a spare knife, runs to a distance and shoots Taylor in the head. He continues running but hears a gunshot and feels he bullet pierce through his back. He feels his chest and looks down to see his hands soaked in blood. Taylor approaches and unleashes punch after punch, sending blood flying left and right. Before too long, John's face was covered in blood again. Taylor pulls a katana out of his sheath and grabs john by the throat.

"This is a death better than you deserve."

He stabs John in the chest. John falls to his knees gasping. Taylor pulls out the katana and wipes the blood off of the blood before putting it back in its sheath. Taylor pulls John's gun out of its holster and shoots John in the head. He collapses… Overkill was dead.

Taylor hears footsteps approaching and pulls out his gun only to see Autumn.

"I'm sorry, I thought I could stop you." she says.

"Autumn, there's nothing you could've done to stop me. He probably killed Lonnie. I was going to kill him regardless." Taylor responds.

They go back to the cliffside hideout determining that they should track down the escaped inmates later. There had been enough violence that night.

Taylor entered first and took off his cape.

"It's almost 3am at least we don't have school tomorrow."

Autumn takes off her cape and corset, wearing only a bra and her pants looking at Taylor innocently. She approaches him and kisses him, then wraps her legs around his waist. He falls backwards onto the vinyl sofa. She looks down at him biting her lip.

"What are you waiting for?" she asks.

He grabs some of her hair in the back and pulls on it. She pulls her head back with her eyes closed and gasps. They both roll of the couch and laugh.

The next morning Taylor wakes up in a bed that he had in the lair for long nights from a phone call. He answers it.

"Hello?"

"Hey, It's Dick. What happened at Arkham last night?"

"Well, I went there to kill Overkill in which I was successful. But he freed a few inmates. I noticed Joker out of all of them."

"Shit, he had been there for almost two years at this point. Looks like we have our hands full now. Can you swing by the manor later? Bring your new partner too."

"Yeah, sure."

"Alright, talk to you later. Bye."

Autumn reaches her arm around Taylor.

"Good morning." she says.

"Hey, gorgeous." he says looking at her.

"That was a crazy night. I mean with Blackout!"

"Yeah. Let's hope something like that doesn't happen again. Hey, we got invited to Wayne Manor for a personal matter."

"I thought you said that Dick was only a mutual friend of you two."

"Well, It's more complicated than that. Let's get dressed, Alfred cooks some killer breakfast."

Chapter 9: The Demon's Head

At the Blackout safehouse there was only 8 members left. Their days are numbered as the GCPD was on their trail. Suddenly the lights turn off. One operative, the last member of John's original team, hears screaming and the slashing of flesh. About 30 seconds later the lights turn on and he sees Leland McCauley standing in front of him smiling with a bloody dagger.

"Mr. McCauley! What are you doing here?"

"Mr. McCauley? Is That who you think I am?"

He stabs the Blackout operator.

"Leland McCauley is just a guise. I am the demon's head!"

He slits his throat.

"I am Ra's al Ghul!"

At Wayne Manor, everybody is seated in the dining hall. Everybody including Dick, Barbara, Damien, Jason, Taylor, Autumn, Alfred, Bruce, and even Tim Drake was there from Bludhaven.

"Autumn, last night you did something I've never seen anybody do before. You gave up your identity to talk some sense into someone. A secret identity is something that should not be given up so easily for many reasons. Just the fact that you trusted Anarky enough to reveal yourself was brave. You have my blessing." Says Bruce.

"How do you know about that?" Autumn asks.

"I have a secret of my own, follow me." Says Bruce.

Everybody gets up from the table. They follow Bruce into the study where he sits down at a piano and plays a few notes. A bookshelf opens up next to them revealing an elevator. They all get into the elevator as it descends down what appeared to be an abandoned mineshaft. The elevator stopped and the doors opened into a large cave. There were platforms here and there, one with a large computer with multiple monitors, one seated the Batwing, and one seated the current Batmobile. But there was one platform that caught Autumns eye. She ran over to it. It was a set of cases, one with the Batgirl suit, One with the Robin suit, and quite a few that had batsuits. Her mouth gaped open. She looks at Bruce. She points at one of the batsuits.

"Is this one yours?" She asks.

Bruce smirks.

"Yes, surprised?"

"Holy sh- you're Batman?!" She exclaims.

"Indeed. Now tonight I need all of you guys on the lookout for escaped Arkham inmates, especially the Joker. As you all know, proceed with caution. He is much smarter than you think. One wrong move and it's over." Says Bruce.

Just then, a ninja jumps down from a platform in front of Bruce. Bruce gets into combat stance.

"I have a message from the master." She says.

"The master? Who do you mean?" Asks Bruce.

"It's time to take your place as his heir."

They all suit up and are led into an underground tunnel system. They come into a room with a large green pool in the middle with Ra's al Ghul kneeling beside it.

"I figured the best way to cause your downfall was to have Wayne industries attacked. But per usual you exceeded my expectations detective." said Ra's

"What do you want Ra's?" Says Bruce.

"Kill me, and take my place as my heir."

"What?! Grandfather, shouldn't I be your heir?" says Damien.

"Ah, Damien. You lack focus. All you have is rage, maybe someday you'll take your father's place as Ra's al Ghul should he finally decide to fulfill his destiny."

Damien grabs a sword and charges at Ra's. Ra's deflects the attack and knocks Damien aside.

"You're the one behind Blackout? So it was never Overkill?" Asks Taylor.

"Yes, oh yes! It was all part of a bigger scheme to cause Gotham's downfall."

"I will never kill you Ra's!"

"Fine."

Ra's has some of his assassins bring out a beaten Lucius Fox.

"If I won't die, he does."

"No!"

Bruce unleashes his anger, punching Ra's multiple times. Dick steps in kicking Ra's in the face. Tim engages by hitting Ra's with his staff. Ra's picks up a scimitar. Everybody rushes him. He is able to defend himself, blocking every hit with both speed and precision. Before too long everybody had been knocked down except Ra's.

"You made the wrong decision detective. You chose to resist instead of submitting to your destiny."

He thrusts the sword into Lucius's chest.

"No!" yells Bruce tackling Ra's and brutally beating down on him.

"That's it detective! Let it out!"

Bruce stops and yells.

"No! No matter what you do to me, no matter who you hurt, I WILL NOT KILL!"

Autumn rushes over to Lucius and starts chanting something. The blood flows back into his chest and he sits up.

"Good morning!" says Lucius.

"No, Impossible! I'll have you all killed! I am the demon's head, I am Ra-"

Autumn jumps off the wall and floors Ra's with a stab in the chest with a dagger. Ra's gasps, pulling out the dagger.

"Weren't expecting that were you! You son of a bitch!" says Autumn.

"What was that about not killing?" says Taylor.

"I've heard the stories, he wouldn't have surrendered!"

Epilogue: Hellblazer

Taylor enters his apartment and hears the sound of a lighter igniting and he smells cigarette smoke. He turns around and sees a man wearing black shoes, black pants, a white shirt with a loosened red tie with a tan trench coat and blonde hair with a stubble standing in the corner of the room smoking a cigarette. It was his old friend and mentor.

"John fucking Constantine!" Taylor says

"Cheers mate!" John replies in his British accent.

They hug each other.

"What are you doing here? I haven't heard from you in a while."

"I have something I need you to do for me. Our mutual friend Zatanna Zatara found a girl named Rachel Roth. She's half demon. She says she's being tracked by a man with fangs and a taste in Victorian fashion. Sound familiar?"

"Adrian Dumont. What does he want with her?"

"I don't know. But it might be a good idea to bring along our friend in the Order of Saint Dumas."

"That means we'll have to track down Azrael."

"Right, but whatever happens. We can't let Mr. Dumont get his hands on her, whatever he's planning it's not good."

Autumn and Taylor are sitting at the edge of a hospital bed belonging to Lonnie Machin.

"He doesn't look good." says Autumn.

"Yeah, but he'll make it. He'll probably be awake tomorrow." says Taylor.

They both leave and are passed by a doctor wearing a medical mask. The doctor stands at the end of Lonnie's bed. He pulls down his mask. Revealing his identity. The Joker.

"Hello son! Welcome home! Hahahaha!

Next time: Nightmare, Black Swan, Constantine, and Azrael must stop Adrian Dumont, the master vampire that turned Taylor, before he can get his hands on Rachel and plunge the world into darkness. Black Mask's trial begins going sideways after multiple officials turn up dead. Anarky races against time to defeat the Joker, who harbours a dark secret regarding his family.


End file.
